


Unmasked

by rxsette



Category: Naruto
Genre: Anbu Hatake Kakashi, Anbu Hyuuga Neji, Anbu Uchiha Itachi, Anbu Uzumaki Naruto, BAMF Uzumaki Naruto, M/M, Smart Uzumaki Naruto
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 18:07:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13576086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rxsette/pseuds/rxsette
Summary: Naruto has to hide his identity from his friends as the man behind the famed ANBU, Kitsune. But it isn't easy when his newly assigned ANBU team ends up prying his personal life. ItaNaru





	Unmasked

Working with a snarky, evil being full of hatred was not difficult for him. It wasn't easy either yet he managed to do what the others before him have fallen short in. And he believed he had every right to feel deserving of some sort of reward for doing so at such a young age. Because honestly, who could ever control the ever-moody nine tailed beast? Especially when sometimes, it doesn't want to share the same intent.

His arm outstretched forward with the short sword gripped tightly in his tan hands as he maneuvered it around slashing his prey. Blood splayed over the ripped cloth and the sight stared back at him invitingly. He had not missed. No. He wouldn't do so _._ His tenant had,  _purposely,_  to play with its food and strangle them with such mirth. That much he understood after the rush that the animalistic side of him lusted over.

He frowned.

Perhaps controlling it wasn't the right word. Compromising with it, learning to reason with it, and ultimately, desperately steering it from doing what the whole village of Konoha expected him to do was probably better.

The beast in him growled ferociously when he sighed in dismay. His lack of brutality was a disgrace to the beast, it kept reminding him.

He grimaced before he relaxed, allowing the malice of the beast to grow in him. This—he could give this side to him if only for a while.

The dark rims of his eyes turned soot and bold, suffocating and freezing his frightened enemy on his spot. He was sure the foreign ninja could feel the ominous intent enveloping him with no hints of escape.

He pulled out the black-tethered leather neatly shoved in his pocket, whipping it out fluidly and then smacking the air. It made the other tense and crouch defensively in barely a second.

It was amazing how exhilarating it felt watching his prey cave into his whims with only small efforts. But he admits, it was much more interesting when they put up a fight… A tasty prey who—

He didn't linger in his thoughts knowing that the little freedom he gave the beast influenced him. Monstrous, he knew. But this was still a mission he needed to complete.

He garnered the chakra in his stomach into his palm, transferring it into the tethered whip. Wasting not another second, he unleashed the red chakra through it and whipped forward, wrapping his prey.

It was fast. It was unforeseen, almost. It was in a speed his prey couldn't fathom.

But he still heard his tenant scoff at him. That last thing he needed was for his power source to feel annoyed and disturbed that it would suddenly retract its powers. It's happened.

He ignored the beast, opting to deal with the repercussion if it still felt like putting a fight with him. Unless he was in his beast mode, where his tenant controlled his body, he'd rather deal with his attackers quickly.

Pulling out the tanto strapped to his back, he grabbed on the wrapped leather around his prey to plunge the sword through his chest, giving it the last secured kill. The body stopped squirming and quickly fell limp altogether.

"Kitsune." A figure dropped down from behind him, kneeling on the ground.

Instead of turning to his teammate, he merely gestured at the dead man in front of him with a bowed gaze. In one swift move, he had motioned his hand up from his hips, swiping a senbon out of his pocket to hit the shadow figure he'd heard lurking around.

Thankfully, a bulkier silhouette met the stranger's shadow in time just as his needle punctured. He smiled watching the shadow of his teammate strangle the foreign ninja and then snapping his neck.

He returned his gaze down to his still kneeling comrade. He sighed knowingly. "You didn't round all of them, Crow. Could've cut us some time."

"You looked out of it. Just testing if you were still there."

He rolled his eyes and elicited a small grunt to make his annoyance obvious. "And if I wasn’t?"

"You get killed.  _I_  get to play captain."

He chuckled at his comrade, waving him off with such a light laughter. "It doesn't work that way."

Crow stood up in time a slender comrade dropped beside him. "I said he's a masochist but you're going about it the wrong way."

"Yeah?" Crow leaned on her shoulder. He tried to catch himself as soon as she pushed his elbows off her. "What should I do then?"

"'Dunno." She murmured. "He's oddly hard to please."

The bulky man greeted them with a disgruntled moan when he dropped the body on top of the other. "Ask his sensei. He'd know." He cheekily teased.

Kitsune grumbled under his breath, working his way over the towering bulky man. He reached up to his bear mask, trying to punch him but was held off by quick speed.

"Ten years too early, captain." The mocking grin in his voice was too evident for Kitsune to pass it off as anything but a tease.

With a huff, Kitsune cleared his throat and began scouring the area. With the three pairs of eyes to use, he looked at his teammates and silently asked. With respective nods, he turned to the bodies.

With the location cleared, the fox-masked ANBU signaled with a two-finger wave, halting all other sideshow distractions.

Disposing all of the remains was hard and even more when there was time constraint. But even so, each member of the team moved in a rather unhurried pace. The fox knew better than to berate them. Though slower than intended, they moved with such precision that no energy was wasted. A grace of ANBU that definitely awed him the first time he began training.

He crouched down on his spot, an elbow rested on his thigh. His free hand roamed the body gingerly. Despite wearing a different forehead protector, his values as a ninja couldn't betray him. A shinobi is a shinobi, that would never change for him.

So his finger poked in and out trying to find any sort of clues regarding their mission or even better. He sighed tiresomely when he found none and gently stretched the man's body in a sleeping position.

The action urged a scoff both inside and outside his mindscape. He looked up to the more physically present one, finding the longhaired ANBU in front of him.

"Iwa…" Crow mumbled, fist clenching.

Kitsune knew better than to leave the other from his sight. While there's nothing else that could make Iwa pay with the ninja already dead in their hands, he still assumed Crow could think of something. He was sure.

He stifled a sigh and shrugged, looking back down at the enemy. He knew this was borderline affectionate for an enemy, but he couldn't help it.

"I've worked with captains much less accommodating than you are, and yet you vex me the most." Crow commented before turning away.

That didn't shock him. Crow had always held a bitter feeling against his way of disposal. It was that he vocalized it directly that Kitsune raised a brow at.

"But it's still this reason I hold you in high respect."

He smiled.

Crow was possibly the coldest among them but it didn't mean he had no warmth in him.

His sentiments were quickly interrupted. He turned his head to find their tiger-masked comrade casually dragging a body twice her size towards him. He shuddered at the eagerness of her step, seeming to have a skip in its rhythm.

"Do you want me to scout or to dispose, captain?" She whirled and stopped in front of him.

He shook his head and clarified as he spoke up. "I'll have Crow and Bear scout."

"Perimeters?" Bear gruffly asked behind him as he walked towards the pile and dropped the last of his body count.

"Two miles." Bear crouched down after and jumped high up the branches, ready to round. From his peripherals, he found Crow striding over and dropping the body swiftly before crossing over opposite from where Bear had vanished.

With the perimeters handled, Tiger kneeled down and began the series of signs. Blue fire ignited from her hands and the accuracy and precision of her movement continued to amaze him. "Five seconds." She rattled.

Fox nodded and stood up. He performed his own line of signs, eyes still concentrated on her work. He counted under his breath and after the next five seconds, he aimed and banished the bodies from existence.

"Found anything?" Tiger asked, standing up with a sigh.

"None." He breathed out with dismay clear on his face. "We're heading back."

"And the second team they tracked?"

He didn't respond and only stared at the empty spot of dead bodies. He grimly scowled.

Finding no further explanation, Tiger nodded. No question was asked despite the loud opposition in her head because despite her older age and longer experience, Kitsune was her squad leader.

They stood in silence, waiting for their teammates to return before they journeyed back.

Returning to the village from the borders of the Fire country within three days was a feat that only jonin and ANBU could achieve. Though it was possible, it didn't make it any easier even if they frequented that type of journey. And it was evident from the exhaustion present in his teammates.

"You got a date or something?" Bear asked with a hoarse voice, frustration seeping through. Even with such great stamina that could actually stand a chance against Gai, Bear had reached his limits after feeding only on soldier pills and little to no sleep. His body was slowly deteriorating, as it should.

He was tempted to slow down but he shoved the idea away when he met the sight of Konoha's gates. They were home. Finally. He smiled and muttered, "Something like that."

Their pace finally slowed down after reaching the building a mile away from the Hokage tower. The fox led them up into the office of the Hokage, slipping into the open window that would naturally anger the pig-tailed blonde woman now sitting on her chair.

"Hokage-sama." The four kneeled in front of the desk, the fox leaning closer to the desk than his subordinate.

Looking up, the fox found the woman raising a brow at him. But beyond that, he saw the sunken lines on her face. The work of a Hokage surely was tiring. However, he had an inkling that the haggard look was from staying up late to drink again. He later waved the thought away when he figured the grim expression was due to his almost hitting it too close to Kakashi's definition of time.

"Kitsune," she greeted quickly replacing the welcoming smile with a deep frown, placing the paper down on one of the stacks. "The mission?"

"Successfully completed."

"Good." She nodded but he found the reluctance on the tip of her tongue. He would prod but even with their close relationship, he was still in the presence of their Hokage. Much more, he was an ANBU on duty so he kept his curiosity in check. "Debrief Shikaku then you're dismissed."

The four bowed in unison before filing out of the office. He looked at his exhausted teammates and shot them a short nod—a small gesture that dismissed them from their spots.

He waited for each of them to leave before he strode over to Shikaku's office. The tactician held that office for so long as he remembered.

He walked in silence, mind reeling to outline the mission and what it entailed. As captain, decision-making was his general task. And he knew that lately, despite the orders from the Hokage herself, or even Shikaku, he had been deciding all on his own. He had abused that privilege for his own agenda. Well, only just recently. Still, he stood by his decision and will report it if needed be.

"Kitsune," Nara Shikaku greeted. He looked more or less expectant as he had his feet propped on the table, just an inch to the paperwork piled to the side , with a book nursed in his lap. He looked quite comfortable, as if he'd been waiting for him, what with the way he was lazily slumped on his chair and calling out to him without looking up.

The expected sigh was only seconds away from escaping his lips though he managed to choke it back to greet the man who probably did not want to be there as much as he did.

He bowed to him- a small nod towards his direction.

The tactician pulled his legs back and dropped them on the ground. He leaned forward, sliding his elbows on the table to prop them up and leaned his clasped hands against his chin.

Closing the door behind him and taking the center spot of the space before the man, Kitsune stood straighter. And with the hardened gaze focused on him and the silent cue to start, he began explaining what happened.

It was somewhat gruesome taking into account that they were ANBU. Most of their jobs weren't casual nor easy. Despite the many experiences and acquired skills to pass the evaluation to be one, it was still rare that they didn't come home unscathed. So he told him the incident from the moment they reached the borders, the tracking, the battle that ensued with one of the groups the first team dispatched had informed them, safeguarding the team that sent for help, and most importantly, his decision to return without dealing with the second foreign group.

Shikaku must have had enough of his idiocy, he felt like. Because the man had only sighed heavily, disappointedly too, and reached out to a piece of paper inside the drawer. He frowned at him as he stretched the short piece of paper to him.

He couldn't help but stare at the large printed letters across the top and had reluctantly received it. He didn't expect this one. Or maybe he did and he had been fooling himself. He pursed his complaints. "An intervention." He summarized, eyes trailing back to the man after having read the short orders.

"It was consented by the Hokage." He explained further, not that he needed to. "Those warnings weren't empty, I'm sure you realized."

He bit his lip and then opened his mouth to retort to his senior. "My decisions were based on my judgment that the Hokage trusted."

"I know." Shikaku nodded. "But until we can clarify the situation, refrain from any ANBU work until further notice."

 _Until further notice_. Those words were never good.

"It won't be long." The man reassured, making him jerk his head up to him hopefully. "But until then, no strenuous activity in HQ. You won't be patrolling either." He comforted, or at least kitsune hoped he did. The man stood up, taking scrolls in his arms and pushing his chair back. "Go home."

Kitsune nodded obediently before flashing out of there. He really hoped he had enough time to rest or at least clean up before he met with Team Kakashi. He was sure his teammates would not go easy on him at all after missing each other for almost a week and half. And he really didn't want to take more of those nutrient pills just to survive today.

 


End file.
